True to his word, Frank was at work bright and early the next morning. All it took was some aspirin and a couple eye drops and he felt good as new. Mr. Banks looked like he had not recovered as well from the previous night’s indulgences. He barely looked up as he nodded a greeting to Frank on his way to his own office.
Frank followed him, making sure to sound as cheerful as possible. “Morning, Mr. Banks.” Frank had decided early on to always act like he absolutely loved his job whenever Mr. Banks was around. It had paid off. Now he watched his boss flinch at the volume of his voice and Frank knew he had him off guard. This could only work in his favor. “I was wondering if you remembered our discussion last night? You told me to remind you.”
“Yes, yes, I remember everything we said regarding the promotion. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it, Frank, I’ll keep my word.”
“Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Banks. You’re a gentleman and a scholar. If there’s anything I can do for you, just let me know.”
“Bring me some more coffee, would you? I’ve already had three cups, but so far it hasn’t been enough to kill this hangover.”
Frank ground his teeth as he grinned at his boss. Fetching coffee was far below his pay grade, but he wasn’t about to say no to his boss. Especially not now. “Sure thing. I’ll be right back with that.”
Frank’s smile turned into a scowl the second he turned his back on Mr. Banks. He tried to keep his footsteps light, though he felt like stomping off on his search for caffeine. He briefly considered passing on the message to one of his employees, but he decided he couldn’t risk it. He was the one Mr. Banks had asked to get him coffee, and if it didn’t show up, he would be the one to blame. Frank was never shy of delegating, but he had always believed if you wanted something done right, you had to do it yourself. Any assignment from Mr. Banks, even something as menial as fetching coffee, was too important to trust to an hourly assistant.
Frank was in the break room trying to figure out how to work the coffee machine when Jerry Seigfried walked in. “Hey, Mr. Palacio,” he said in a voice that was a bit too loud and cheery to suit Frank in his current mood.
“Hi, Jerry. Do you know how to work this thing?” Frank kept pushing buttons on the coffee maker, but so far, none of them had succeeded in producing the dark brown liquid he sought.
“Sure thing. What setting do you have it on?”
“Setting?”
“Whoa, this will get you a much bigger cup of coffee than the mug you have in there. Let’s do this instead.” Jerry pushed a few buttons and, after a minute of rumbling, the machine began pouring coffee into the waiting mug.
“Thanks,” said Frank. “I’m glad I bumped into you.” Frank looked around the break room. They had it to themselves for the moment, but Frank lowered his voice anyway. “I had dinner with Mr. Banks last night. He’s going to give you the promotion.”
“Really? That’s great!”
Frank made a shushing motion with his hands. “We only discussed it last night. Nothing’s official yet, so don’t get too excited and don’t tell anyone just yet, all right?”
“You got it.”
“Now, there are a few things you need to know if you’re going to run with the big dogs. Why don’t you meet me in my office in, say, fifteen minutes, and we can discuss this further.”
“Sure thing boss.”
“Great. Now do you think you can work your magic on this thing again? It turns out I’m not quite as sober yet as I had thought.”
“Yeah, you just push this button,” Jerry said as he pushed a button on the machine with his right hand while fetching a clean mug with his left. “Select how much coffee you want, then you just have to hit start and you’re good to go!”
Frank nodded, knowing he would never remember all that. “Thanks. My office. Fifteen minutes.”
“You got it.”
Frank dropped off Mr. Banks’s coffee and headed back to his own office, already calculating how Jerry’s promotion would help him. Frank had orchestrated the promotion of a few other employees to the executive team. He was careful to choose people he knew he could count on to do what he said and Jerry would be just the same. Frank figured, if he kept up like this, he’d be running the company and Mr. Banks wouldn’t even know it.
The End.
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